Ch. xi. On the Fruitfalness of Marriages. 485 



towns and villages, which do not appear "to be so 

 healthy as the moderate towns of Europe, and 

 therefore can form no criterion for the country in 

 general. 



In England the average proportion of marriages 

 to births appears of late years to have been about 

 100 to 350. If we add \ to the births instead of 

 i, which in the chapter on the Checks to Popula- 

 tion in England, I conjectured might be nearly the 

 amount of the omissions in the births and deaths, 

 this will allow for the circumstance of illegitimate 

 births; and the marriages will then be to the 

 births as 1 to 4, to the deaths as 1 to 3.* Cor- 

 rected for second and third marriages, the pro- 

 portion of marriages to deaths will be as 1 to 

 3'6. Supposing the age of marriage in England 

 about 7 years earlier than the mean age of death, 

 the increase in these 7 years, according to the 

 present progress of population of -^ yearly, 

 would be *0G, and the proportion living to marry 

 would be 200 out of 381, or rather more than half.f 

 The marriages compared with the births four 

 years later will give 4*136 for the prolifickness of 

 marriages. 



These instances will be sufficient to shew the 

 mode of applying the rules which have been 

 given, in order to form a judgment, from registers, 



* This applies to the state of population before 1800. 

 t Births -jljj, deaths -^, mean -3- ; and on the supposition that 

 the age of marriage is 28, the difference would be 7. 



